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Abstract: Collection of some essential writings central to understanding the Bahá'í Covenant. Notes: This page was inspired by a bundle published by the Dutch Bahá'í community in November 2021. See also Centenary Edition of Texts for the Study of the Covenant. The contents of the below files were taken from bahai.org/library, edited by Arjen Bolhuis (exception: the compilation "The Covenant" is mirrored here without any layout changes). |
Primary Source Texts Related to the Covenant
by Bahá'u'lláh, Abdu'l-Bahá, Shoghi Effendi, and Universal House of Justice
2021-11"...A Covenant in the religious sense is a binding agreement between God and man ... There is, for example, the Greater Covenant which every Manifestation of God makes with His followers, promising that in the fulness of time a new Manifestation will be sent, and taking from them the undertaking to accept Him when this occurs. There is also the Lesser Covenant that a Manifestation of God makes with His followers that they will accept His appointed successor after Him. If they do so, the Faith can remain united and pure. If not, the Faith becomes divided and its force spent. It is a Covenant of this kind that Bahá’u’lláh made with His followers regarding ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá perpetuated through the Administrative Order..." — The Universal House of Justice
| Author | Title | Years |
| Bahá'u'lláh | Kitáb-i-‘Ahd (Book of the Covenant) | 1891 (first publicly read 7 June 1892) |
| 'Abdu'l-Bahá | Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá | c. 1901-1908 (first publicly read 3 January 1922) |
| Shoghi Effendi | The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh:
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1938 |
| Universal House of Justice | The Constitution of the Universal House of Justice | 26 November 1972 |
| Compilation | The Universal House of Justice | 2021 |
| Compilation | The Covenant | 1987 |
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